I saw the preview for The Souvenir repeatedly, and unlike Lady Gaga, it lost me at the premise of a a bad romance. I see plenty of those for free outside the theater, and I do not find them entertaining. Even a woman director, Joanna Hogg, and Tilda Swinton in a supporting role was not enough to get me in the theater, but there was a nail in the coffin. That nail is called nepotism because Swinton’s daughter, Honor Swinton Byrne, plays the protagonist, a film student. Just because her mama is a good actor does not mean that she would be. No! I did not even put it in my queue. I reluctantly saw it because it kept appearing on lists of the best movies of 2019. While I believed that it was hype, I would not lose anything by seeing it at home.
Initially I watched The Souvenir as if it was a horror film internally screaming at the protagonist to not do certain things or to stop doing things. I have actually been in real life scenarios as the bystander seeing the disaster coming, and I do not enjoy it. I am the Cassandra of friends. So I did not enjoy the film because it was too real, but I had to concede that it was an objectively solid film which benefits from repeat viewings. A viewer’s first viewing will be devoted to understanding the overall story.
The second viewing of The Souvenir will involuntarily make you gasp, “ohhhhh,” as you realize that seemingly insignificant details are retrospectively very symbolic, especially the opening scenes, which feel very divorced from the images that you may expect to see when you start this film. I had an Uncut Gems moment when I thought, “Am I watching the right movie?,” but it is and by the end, you will see that while the protagonist’s work changes as a reflection of her romantic relationship, it is also somewhat prophetic. The goal of the movie is to show how a person becomes who they are, and while the relationship does dramatically change her, it also solidifies the characteristics that managed to survive and get distilled in the winnowing of living life through her lover’s domination although not in the traditional sense. While I would argue that he is clearly grooming her and psychologically abusive, like Secretary, she chooses to let his affectations dominate her and clearly delights in his stylizations. Before him, she would move to the rhythm of her friends and family, was influenced by their tastes and willingly took a back seat during others’ verbose philosophizing, but after the relationship, a woman emerges who is more distinct and recognizable regardless of the situation though still reticent. Her stillness and silence is solid and weighty.
The Souvenir’s story and the way that it is crafted is brilliant. After you know the story, you can appreciate its multilayered functions. The film shows that Hogg learned the lessons that film school taught her in terms of technique and finding her voice: the intimate choice of subject matter, the use of sound, particularly which sound dominates a scene, the composition of each scene. Hogg uses framing to reflect the relationship of the characters to each other by the way that they moved in space or the camera captures them. Camera distance from its subject also matters. Ask yourself if people are even in the same shot. How does a room look from one angle or the other? What is the emotional significance for the characters if Hogg chooses certain angles? My favorite Hogg trademark is when instead of cutting to show one person in a room then the other person in the room, she deliberately uses a still long shot to show how people still interact with each other even when they are not in the same room. She lets the camera show seemingly insignificant, quotidian acts for long periods of time, which imbues the moment with more importance than the characters would be aware of at that moment.
Even though the majority of The Souvenir feels as if it revolves around her lover, Anthony, it is the rare story that still centralizes her even if at the time, she chose not to focus more on herself. I have to give credit to Honor who gives such a naturalistic debut performance that I would rank it as high as the performances in Portrait of a Lady on Fire though this story is the antonym of the French film. Hogg and Honor work well together in reflecting the characters’ internal traits without screaming them to the rooftops. The protagonist is conflicted about herself. She knows that she has privilege and craves to be special, but also feels guilty for needing more so she professes to be ordinary and average. Anthony creates a space for him to occupy by focusing on her. She mistakes it as a place where she gets what she wants. They both have addictions, furtive longings that must be disguised with more rational cover stories. Honor never gives in to melodrama, but acts in a way that seems as if she is experiencing an emotion at that moment. While other actors mistakenly become explosive, she finds a way to still capture the viewers’ attention by withholding and trying to hide her emotion while literally rushing to the least conspicuous place in the room, which I particularly loved when she was initially doing her first disastrous shoot. It is such a counterintuitive acting move that I wish more actors would try.
The Souvenir’s constant undercurrent of violence on the unseen borders of her life and the IRA backdrop was deftly used as another reflection of how Anthony’s presence begins to undermine her well being. The passionate discussion of politics becomes less theoretical as the film unfolds though it never becomes a gimmick movie of the week where she is literally touched by its flames. Characters use politics as a way to express how they feel about their place in the world without wandering into a vulnerable minefield of actually talking about their needs and feelings. It exposes fractures that people try to leave alone lest they widen further. As danger becomes more tangible and present in the protagonist’s world, politics evaporate.
The Souvenir’s world was recognizable to me. It is a world where people endlessly talk about subjects that they care about and exchange ideas. They love going out to eat, visiting movies, sitting with their friends and listening to music loudly yet I would not have been close to the protagonist. I can understand why she would find Anthony appealing and sincerely believed that in a very toxic way, they loved each other. I would have loved for the movie to take a sudden detour or create a sidequel and have a movie completely devoted to Patrick, an asshole, but an honest, stylish one, who is the only person that actually warns her, and she kind of hates him for it. Richard Ayoade is completely unrecognizable in the brief, but memorable role. It made sense that it was mostly the black characters who noticed something was wrong and tried to intervene.
The Souvenir is a movie for film lovers, but ultimately I am glad that I saw it at home with the subtitles on because while there was no problem with the audio quality, there are some moments that could be easily missed without them. If and when I see the movie a third time, I will keep an eye out for the interludes in the narrative which are not linear and would not have noticed if I had not read a review afterwards. There will be a sequel, and I plan to see it at home. Afterwards if I am still impressed, I may explore Hogg’s other films.